A woeful 3-1 defeat at St. Mary’s Stadium gave a performance worthy of relegation for the Magpies. A change in management and Newcastle’s January signings has clearly not been enough to shift the tide in favour of survival.
A manager of Rafael Benitez’s style – so much a defensive minded tactician – will look and wonder how such a loss happened. Defensively, the back four allowed Shane Long and Graziano Pelle free reign to rule over their goal, whilst the attack – on which a lot of the media claimed was the focus of Benitez’s attention – looked short of ideas, only testing the Saints defence sporadically.
Six points adrift of Norwich, and with a game in hand on the Canaries, every game must now be a cup final for Newcastle. But the manner in which they submitted to attacks today gives fans very little cause for optimism.
Is time running out for the defensive four? Has Seydou Doumbia had enough already? How much of the blame can be placed on rookie Karl Darlow?
